An Open Letter to Steve Jobs, From an Apple User

By
LAPTOP Editors
|
October 6, 2011 08:01 am

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To: sjobs@apple.com

Steve:

You’re not there anymore. But we’re not done with you.

I’m on the bus with my iPod Classic, auditing for free a Yale astrophysics course through iTunes U; one I never could have afforded to attend. I count 17 people around me rockin’ iPads, iPhones, Nanos; devices none of us knew we needed and now can’t leave home without. Thank you.

So, I’m commuting from work, where we herd a constellation of Macs to make Internet movies about tech and science. Ten years ago, we paid thousands of dollars a day for facilities far less capable. Thank you.

When I get home, Apple will be doing homework in our kitchen. Last holiday season, we gave our 9-year old twins twin MacBooks. It freaks me out that their first laptop may their last laptop. After they go to bed, I’ll spend a few hours in my project studio making music and video “in the box” – some of it with snippets of sounds and scenes licensed from colleagues around the planet; people I’ll never meet in person. Thank you.

They called us a cult, once. But we weren’t. Apple’s neither a religion nor a fan-faction. Maybe, at the core, Apple is just an engineering aesthetic: maximal power in minimal design, creating its own demand. It’s a virile virus – but a non-violent one – that you and your posse’s unleashed. You folks really have made us think differently. Thank you.

They called you arrogant, fussy and a slavedriver. But you were just confident. And sharp. And every millennial Apple shows it. For sure, as I dance through a day with my Unibody MacBook Pro, I sometimes get yanked-up short: How did I live long enough to drive this much elegance? And just chuck it in my backpack? Thank you.

And, no, eleven personal Apple purchases later; I still can’t seem to part with my first Mac, a 512k (that I later fattened), though I long ago spray-painted it black. Like a mock turtleneck. That’s not your fault.